well it says you string on a star 5 so i expected it to be faster than cranks/dropweights. most of the stringing time for me at least comes from weaving the crosses.

i string on a dropweight and it usually takes around 40 min for synthetic and 1hr for poly.

16 min...damn... that's pretty fast for poly.

Click to expand...

yeah, I string my racquets a lot and I've gotten really fast on my machine.Star 5 is just so smooth. I'm pretty used to poly though. I either only string poly or natural gut so i'm just used to stringing with stuff like that.

my record time on an Ektelon was 13mins crank(many years ago) ,now with the Wise head on my Ektelon stringing muti is super fast... but those new Prince rackets are a pain in the butt to string.. my average time is around 20-25min. I can't stand still for too long,I gotta get a drink or something all the time...

Does anyone else have trouble tieing off a really soft cross when you have lux ALU Power Rough?

Click to expand...

i've tied off a soft cross on a stiff main before ( Pro Redcode and Maxim Touch hybrid). Either clamp a lot of string with your starting clamp, or grab a glove that gives some grip and pull it by hand.

Thining back I think the fastest racquet I did on my star 5 was about 11 minutes with a graphite mid if I remember correctly. I'm a little quicker on a star 4 though once I get used to the clamps the tension head. That's what I used before the star 5.

How do you like the Star 5 base clamps compared to the Star 4 base clamps? To me, the Star 4 bases are just so much quicker with the spring assist, whereas you have to turn that knob on the Star 5. . . BTW my fastest time is roughly 15 minutes on my Revo with a Speedport White with OG Sheep Micro 18g. strung at 63lbs.

Mg prestige mid (tight pattern and small headsize) on alpha revo 4000
full poly 30... pain in the butt and fingers are burning
full multi or syngut 20 min of easy stringing (on most rackets)
gut.... about an 45-50min

I must fail at stringing. It usually takes me a little over an hour to string a racket. I'm never in a big rush when stringing though...I like to take my time while listening to music or watching the tele.

How do you like the Star 5 base clamps compared to the Star 4 base clamps? To me, the Star 4 bases are just so much quicker with the spring assist, whereas you have to turn that knob on the Star 5. . . BTW my fastest time is roughly 15 minutes on my Revo with a Speedport White with OG Sheep Micro 18g. strung at 63lbs.

Click to expand...

The star 5 bases look like they would be a pain but I've gotten used to them and I'm quicker on them now. Now it feels awkward using the star 4. I think overall i like the 5 better. Now if I were traveling with it I'd take a 4 over it anyday.

How do you like the Star 5 base clamps compared to the Star 4 base clamps? To me, the Star 4 bases are just so much quicker with the spring assist, whereas you have to turn that knob on the Star 5. . . BTW my fastest time is roughly 15 minutes on my Revo with a Speedport White with OG Sheep Micro 18g. strung at 63lbs.

Click to expand...

The star 5 bases look like they would be a pain but I've gotten used to them and I'm quicker on them now. Now it feels awkward using the star 4. I think overall i like the 5 better. Now if I were traveling with it I'd take a 4 over it anyday.

How do you like the Star 5 base clamps compared to the Star 4 base clamps? To me, the Star 4 bases are just so much quicker with the spring assist, whereas you have to turn that knob on the Star 5. . . BTW my fastest time is roughly 15 minutes on my Revo with a Speedport White with OG Sheep Micro 18g. strung at 63lbs.

Click to expand...

The star 5 bases look like they would be a pain but I've gotten used to them and I'm quicker on them now. Now it feels awkward using the star 4. I think overall i like the 5 better. Now if I were traveling with it I'd take a 4 over it anyday.

Usually takes me about 35 - 40 minutes, from inspecting the frame, removing old strings, mounting and stringing. Sometimes it's a little longer depending on the racquet. I of course am a firm believer in taking the extra time to do a quality job instead of trying to beat the clock. If one can do a quality job in 20 minutes, great. If it takes one an hour or more to do a quality job, that's fine too IMO.

By the way, I use a Laserfibre/Stringway MS200FX. It's a dropweight but is just as fast as an electric.

I think if anyone starts a thread like this, it should have the criteria in which you time yourself. If you are timing strictly the stringing process (first moment the string touches the grommets until last string is clipped), it's way different than the full prep, mount, etc process.

I don't like comparing times with racquets that have strings in them ("full" time) because I don't think it's a good idea to rush the cutting process (most will forego doing it "correctly"), nor the mounting process, since it's variable from machine to machine.

The star 5 bases look like they would be a pain but I've gotten used to them and I'm quicker on them now. Now it feels awkward using the star 4. I think overall i like the 5 better. Now if I were traveling with it I'd take a 4 over it anyday.

Click to expand...

wow, I'm really surprised you bothered going thru all the trouble you did with the Star 5, having a star 4. The star 3 & 4 never had all the problems with the tension head, the star 5's have. Anyways, having strung on a star 3 and 5, IMO, the star 3 is hands down an easier machine to use than the 5. More space within the arms, and base clamps are much more simple. Do you still have your star 4??

On the topic of the thread, I generally string a frame in approx 30-40 minutes. This includes cutting out the strings, cleaning the frame, mounting, stringing, stencil, and overgrip replacement. Fastest frame I recall "stringing" (only includes stringing time) would be under 15 minutes. But have never really timed myslef ro attempted to see how fast I could string a frame.

wow, I'm really surprised you bothered going thru all the trouble you did with the Star 5, having a star 4. The star 3 & 4 never had all the problems with the tension head, the star 5's have. Anyways, having strung on a star 3 and 5, IMO, the star 3 is hands down an easier machine to use than the 5. More space within the arms, and base clamps are much more simple. Do you still have your star 4??

On the topic of the thread, I generally string a frame in approx 30-40 minutes. This includes cutting out the strings, cleaning the frame, mounting, stringing, stencil, and overgrip replacement. Fastest frame I recall "stringing" (only includes stringing time) would be under 15 minutes. But have never really timed myslef ro attempted to see how fast I could string a frame.

Click to expand...

I did not own a Star 4. I used a poorly maintained one at the club I played at. i strung for the shop and the owner was a pain in the *** so I bought my own star 5. I am now very happy with my star 5. I pull 17g Redcode at about 30KG and no breakage and barely any marring the string (the Star 4 broke red code from time to time itself) I obviously don't know if Babolat has corrected the problem in production now but I sanded down the jaws slightly and it is great to use now. I tried to find a 3 or 4 for a couple years but ppl were always asking too much so I just bought a star 5 with warranty.

Anyway I like to service peoples racquets a lot like you do. I string the racquet, stencil it if I know the person is sponsored or upon request, and place the fresh strung stick in a poly racquet bag. Everyone so far has seemed to really like it. Right now i am trying to come up with a logo to make racquet labels with tension, string, date, and DT ratings on it. I also want to have a big logo printed on the bags like what P1 and other big stringers like. I think it would step it up for some shops in town and It would be good advertising.

Also I would just like to say my string times are not my fastest possible but as fast I can get them done with care and quality. I would not go any faster if I was not doing a quality job. I will say though the graphite I did was full throtle. I didn't burn the string or misweave or anything like that but I was doing that for fun just to see how fast I could do it. Typically I churn out quality job in about 15-25 minutes though.(the 25 minutes either being gut or I ahve a client that uses straight alu power rough in a pt 10 with the original pc 600 caps on it. In other words the worst possible senario to string a racquet lol)

It's also on my personal racquet which is a 16x19. An 18x20 would of course take a couple minutes more. I've gotten to the point on mine doing standard strings that I know pretty much within a click how far I'm going to have to turn the ratcheting clutch so it's usually only one to two drops to get the bar horizontal. The first frame took me about 90 minutes and have worked down to that. I won't get appreciably faster unless I get a different machine.

I did a loose full syn gut and i got in done in 28 minites ! Im doing it around 35-40 for poly/syn and 45 for a full poly.. Full poly sucks when you get to like the top or bottom haha.. Oh and almost forgot. I string of a eagnas crank..